HOW DO I?

Create a grid for a Barn Quilt using actual sizes

A Barn Quilt is not a quilt. Originally a Barn Quilt is a single quilt block, painted on a square board hung on a barn. The idea of a Barn Quilt has inspired city dwellers to make and place a Barn Quilt on their home or fence.

option 1

 
Start with Quick Pick for a Barn Quilt

In Grid Paper open Quick Picks and scroll to 16-patch Barn Quilt Project Panel. Tap that Quick Pick and open the tools on the right side for Major Grid, Border and Page Settings to see the size of the key 'pieces':
  • ​5 ¼" patch size
  • 1 ⅜" border width
  • 23 ¾" x 23 ¾" block size (the actual/measure size of a pre-cut 2'x2' project board)

Working up a Barn Quilt layout in Quilt Paper lets you see the layout before starting work. The grid layout lets you assess the design balance of your plan, shows the actual size of 'pieces', and how well the grid will fit on the project board.

​Work with the grid until it is what you want, then open in Paint to create your design. Here are a few classic Barn Quilt designs that use this Quick Pick's layout:
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option 2


Create your own Barn Quilt design

Decide what block you'd like to make as a Barn Quilt and pick the appropriate graph paper. In that graph paper:
  1. Set the Page Settings to the dimensions of your project board
  2. Set the grid at the actual size of the Major Grid, Border (if adding) and Page Settings
  3. Open the grid in Paint to plan the design for your Barn Quilt

This example will use the Log Cabin paper (requires InApp purchase) to make a 6x6 patch layout.

1. Open the Log Cabin paper and immediately set Page Settings to the actual project board size:
  1. Open Page Settings
  2. Scroll to Custom
  3. Set size (In this example 23 ¾' x 23 ¾")
  4. Set all margins to zero

With the margins set to zero, they are ‘out of the way’ and the layout is the same size as the page. I know this because the dotted blue line is the very same size as the page — there is no white border outside the blue line.

2. Set the grid to the right number of patches.

This example requires setting the Log Cabin paper to a 6x6 patch.

3. Find the strip width that is just exactly the size needed to fill the project board.

This process requires just a bit of trial and error:
  1. If your plan for your Barn Quilt includes a border, add the border and its width before working on patch size. (This example does not have a border.)
  2. Tap the '+' on the Strip Width until you find the size where the strip is too big and Quilt Paper can not draw it. In this example it is between 3 ½" and 4".
  3. Enter a width slightly higher that 3 ½" to find the size where there is no gap between the layout and the edge of the page (This is the white area that 'holds' the grid.) In this example, we tried 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 3.95 — on attempting 3.96 the grid was too big — so 3.95 it is! (If your Barn Quilt layout has a border, you can also adjust its size during this process to find measurements you want to work with.)

This process of slowly incrementing the piece size works because QuiltPaper forces all adjustments to stay within the page margins. There are more details on how to work with actual sizes in QuiltPaper in this video on making a quilt using the add-on Diamond paper.

4. Now the grid is finished and ready to be brought into Paint!